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November 9, 2011

We Have a Match!!

We have a match! We have a match! We have a match!!!!!!!
She is a precious baby girl estimated to be 10 months old.  She is absolutely beautiful and we are so unbelievably ecstatic.

Isn't she cute?!?!!! I mean I know you can't see the whole picture but just look at those hands. She's so, so, so special and we're absolutely smitten. We can't post a full pic until we've passed court but until then, just imagine the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen and the cutest inquisitive smirk possible.

(You may actually recognize her from one of my earlier posts... I'll get to that)

Here is the story:

Last June our adoption coordinator gave all adoptive families access to 900 photos from her 2 ½ week summer trip to Ghana.  As I eagerly scanned through these photos, I noticed a sweet, beautiful, baby girl… I didn’t know anything about her other than she was living in a part of an orphanage for children with special needs. As the months followed, I often thought about her, although I did not know anything about her story.

Months later, in September, I woke up in the middle of the night, very restless.  I couldn’t sleep and finally decided to just get out of bed.  I wandered into the dark living room, sat on the couch, and turned on my laptop.  I very quickly landed on my coordinator’s blog (a blog I read often).  I was struck by one of her most recent posts titled “Baby O”.  In her post she described a little girl needing a family.  This baby was suspected to have some delays, but her delays would remain unknown until an adoptive family brought her home to American doctors.  According to her blog, this child was being called “Baby O” as she had no official name and O was the first letter of her orphanage.  She posted a picture of the baby’s body (full pics aren’t allowed on the internet) and I immediately recognized it as the body of the sweet girl I had seen in the pictures from her trip months before. 

I quickly logged back into her photo account, searched through those 900 photos and found the pictures I had seen this summer of this little girl.  She was absolutely adorable and her eyes were stunning.

I immediately began praying for her, her situation, and her name. It bothered me so much that she didn’t have a name.  As I prayed and stared at her photos the letter ‘A’ kept coming to me.  And then again.  And then again… just an odd nagging in my mind..  “A, A, A, A,”  Finally, I said, “Okay God, are you telling me something?” and immediately the letters A-B-I-E-L-L-A came to me. Was this a name? If so, I had never heard of it… I quickly typed the letters into my google search and hit enter.  It immediately popped up “Abiella- Hebrew name for ‘God is my father.’”  I was struck.  It was significant. 

This sweet orphan was not an orphan… she did have a father…a heavenly Father that cared so much for her. I was blown away. The moment was huge and an indescribable energy surged through me. I ran to wake up Sean.  He sat up, he listened, and he looked at the photos. 

That night we began praying for “Abiella”.  What did this connection mean?  We hadn’t planned on special needs, although we had found ourselves talking about special needs a lot in the weeks prior. From then on, we began discussing special needs more seriously, we began speaking with friends who had raised children with special needs, and we began praying about it… a lot.  We thought about Abiella… we prayed for Abiella… we gazed at Abiella’s photos.

In the meantime, our coordinator had asked us to spread the word about this child.  They were on a search for her forever family. Although I wanted her to be mine, I felt it was selfish to not post her story.  I didn’t want her to stay one more night away from a loving family… and we weren’t at a place to make that decision just yet…so I posted about her on my blog, and prayed that I’d made the right choice.

After that, we continued to talk, pray, and listen.  Two weeks ago, we got the assurance and peace we had been asking for.  We knew without a doubt we were to move forward. Filled with unspeakable peace, true desire and crazy excitement, we sent our coordinator an email asking, “Is Baby O still up for adoption?”  It was the weekend, we knew we may not get an answer for days, but sure enough Sunday morning at 1:30 am we got a reply.  It began with, “Mary Susan, my heart just about leaped out of my chest! Yes she’s still up for adoption!”  After reading more about her story and praying some more we replied, “We’re so in love with this child. Let’s move forward.” And that’s what we did.  Two days later, we were filling out final paperwork and preparing to submit our dossier.

She will be named Abiella and be called Baby Abi for short. (Abi rhymes with baby… not Abby). We are head over heels in love, unbelievably excited, and absolutely desperate to get her home.  We want to love her, hold her, cuddle her, and give her all the care and attention she deserves.  For now, her medical situation is a mystery. As the original post stated, we know her body size is tiny and her head is a bit smaller than typical.  As we are eager to get a diagnosis for the sake of helping our sweet baby, there is NO diagnosis that could change our hearts, minds, or love for this precious child.

So, long story short, we are moving towards becoming a family of 3!  We hope to be bringing Abiella home in 4-5 months. We are thrilled, over the moon, ecstatic, and scrambling to get all the paperwork in to make this process as quick as possible.

We are absolutely in love and can hardly get anything done.  I've already made multiple trips to Target for baby girl clothes, started plotting the layout of her new room, and even begun sleeping with her new stuffed animals (we want them to smell like us when we leave them with her in Ghana during our first visit...)

We would love it if you would join us in praying for sweet Baby Abi. We pray that her health will remain strong during this time of waiting, that we will be able to get her home as quickly as possible, and that she will feel loved and nurtured during this time of transition. 

We hope to visit her for the first time this month.  I'll be keeping you posted!!!!

The journey begins!!

Feeling very blessed and very excited,
Mary Susan


    *******


28 comments:

Julie @ The Smitten Mintons said...

OH MY GOSH! I am so so happy for y'all! What an answered prayer. I will definitely be praying for y'all and for Abi, and I cannot wait to see her beautiful little face!

Nee Nee said...

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! So excited for y'all! The story of how God has brought this to be just gave me chills - what an ABSOLUTELY perfect name!

I will definitely be praying for sweet Abiella and I can't WAIT to see your first family photo!

OMG - so excited!! (and I was wondering if this was the news Danielle was alluding to earlier this week...)

Sweet Carolina Grace said...

Wow! How exciting! Those little hands and sweet cheeks! I bet y'all are just over the moon! I'm so excited, and we are just new bloggy-adoption buddies. :) Yay! Happy dance time!

Danielle said...

yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cant wait to meet her! xoxoxoxox

Hannah said...

That is sooooo x infinity exciting for you!
Praying for you all and that the process is super quick for you!
xo

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! SHE LOOKS SO CUTE AND WHAT A MIRACLE FROM GOD!!!

http://alexthinking1.blogspot.com/

ConnieB said...

I just found your blog- and OH MY GOODNESS this is too wonderful! I'm so happy for you!

Jamie said...

Sending you all positive thoughts. How exciting!

Katie said...

Congratulations!!! That is just so wonderful!
Sending prayers your way!

Mrs.CFH2 said...

Congratulations Momma! There is no greater gift than having a baby! I hope this process goes swiftly and smoothly for you!

Anonymous said...

wow my sean a daddy he wil be a great daddy and mary susan I am sure you will be a terrific mom...Congrats to you all GOD IS GOOD!

Katie Jordet said...

holy freakin moly. what a beautiful beautiful story. i am just in love with every way that this fell together. you two are such a special couple. what a wonderful world baby abi will grow up in with you guys. best of luck in getting through all the paperwork and preparation. seriously... this is just wonderful.

Brittany Stewart said...

i love that you posted this!!!! AGH!!!! It is really happening! I love you and im praying for everyone involved. God is GREAT! :)

Mae said...

Thank you so much for all of your kind words! Each of your comments means so much to us and I'll be printing them out and putting them in a journal. I really can't thank you enough!

Hannah Richardson said...

MS I am SO excited for you and Sean!! I'm still praying for y'all during the rest of the process... Your sweet little girl is going to be adored like crazy. Hugs to you both.
Hannah

Melissa said...

I loved reading this! What a beautiful story...and it's just the beginning! Congratulations on your sweet little girl!!

Lauren {whimsy lane} said...

This is such an incredible story. I feel such a strong desire to adopt a child in need, which came about when I had my own son. I instantly thought of how devastating it would be for my little angel to sit in an orphanage. We women are universal mothers. We feel for and support each other and you are doing such an honor to this little girl's biological mother (whoever she is/was) for caring for this child she was unable to for whatever reason.
I love that you gave her a name. It saddened me so much to hear that she didn't have one, that they were calling her "baby O". That's terrible. Everybody deserves an identity. I love that you gave her one :)
Adoption is something that is not always easy to explore, as I've found no real info on the internet of the process. I would love to hear all about this so that if we're ever able to adopt, we know where to start.

Jill Daugherty said...

That is INCREDIBLE!! So very happy for you and Sean. I can't wait to read updates & will definitely be praying for you and that sweet girl! :)

Ash said...

Cutest lil' hand I have ever seen. So excited for the newest McConnell to get here soon. Miss you and Congratulations! xx

Carina Schoen said...

oh my goodness, what an amazing blessing! congratulations on your sweet girl.

Love Sparkle Pretty said...

Wow! I am in love with your guys' adoption story! Abi is such a blessing and she already so loved!

grey rose (they/them) said...

praise jesus! praying for y'all and your darling abiella! xo

Alynne Leigh said...

Your story gives me goosebumps!

I couldn't be more excited for you (:

Praying!

Crafts a la Mode said...

My husband and I adopted 2 girls from Korea (now they have children of their own) and I remember the year we waited. It was tough, but it has all worked out and that was many years ago. They are my own! Best wishes to your new threesome (soon to be)

Linda

The Burnside of Life said...

Fllowed you from your post on Adventure od Newlyweds. I just wanted to let know how amzing your story is! It truly touched my heart! I admire you and your husband, and am so excited for Abiella to be coming home to such a loving family! I'm excited for follow along as you guys prepare to bring her home!

Alyssa said...

I have goose bumps all over! You were truly inspired and this little girl is just precious! My brother had downs syndrome, I say had because he has passed away. These little are SO sweet and so loving! I am so excited for you and I hope she gets to come home soon!! (:

Karen said...

Hi, I found you through Ashley at Rustic Living and I love this story of Abi. She is beautiful!! I would love to hear more about how you went about adopting a child from an orphanage. Please feel free to contact me kfinck4@gmail.com. Thank you :)

Unknown said...

I just went through and read your story. What a gorgeous, gorgeous love baby Abi has with you guys!